Mapping America's Fight Against Excess City Parking

It’s gaining ground—from Seattle to Miami.

It’s getting hard to keep track of all the U.S. cities taking aim at parking minimums—policies that require developers to build a certain amount of parking spaces, leading to higher rents and more congested drives to work. Fortunately the good folks at the Strong Towns blog are tracking this progress with the crowdsourced map shown above.

As of this post the map pictured at least 43 cities (including some in Canada). Those marked with green pins have completely eliminated their parking minimums in part of the city. Blue pins represent a reduction to minimums or a removal for certain purposes, such as development near transit stations. Cities with orange pins have started the conversation.

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Clicking on a pin reveals a brief description of a particular city parking plan. The Miami pin, for instance, details the new city ordinance that exempts small buildings from minimums and gives larger buildings the chance to cut their parking in half. The Seattle pin, meanwhile, tells you that parking minimums have been “largely eliminated downtown.”

The map is understandably light or limited in some places. The Seattle description, for instance, doesn’t mention a great new idea that would take this policy further by requiring developers to give tenants transit passes or other alternative transport options instead of a parking spot. Nor is Champaign, Illinois, to be found on the map, despite a new measure to relax parking requirements on new residential development that prompted an unusual objection from opponents: that it would make the city too nice.

If you see any other holes in the network, head to Strong Towns and drop them a note.